At Maker Faire Bay Area this past May, MAKE videographer Nat Heckathorn and I tackled the hills of San Mateo on longboard skateboards. Well, Nat had a longboard. I had a wobbly little cruiser ill-suited to fast descents. On my second run I went down hard on my hip and up popped a grapefruit sized hematoma of swirling black and purple that lasted for weeks.

As I got ready for World Maker Faire New York, more than one colleague told me to stay away from skateboards lest I injure myself again. I complied, but then I met up with Andreas Ekberg.

When I met Andreas he surprised me with a maple board he made with Makie, MAKE’s robot mascot, on it. Although you can’t see it in the photo above, he also added a strap to make it easy to carry. Clever.

The deal is he’s going to send me another board with no graphics on it and MAKE’s staff gets to decorate it and send it back to him. Sounds like a deal.

Meanwhile, I’ll wait until the fair is over before I give the Makie board a try. Thanks Andreas!